“Daredevil” Film Director Remains ‘Haunted’

The ‘modern age’ of superhero films began two decades ago and in that time there’s been a couple of outright duds along with a few disappointing misfires. 2003’s “Daredevil” is generally lumped into one of the two groups.

Mark Steven Johnson helmed the film and has often been the target of criticisms lobbed at the project. A subsequent director’s cut of the film was released on disc and better received, though still had issues.

Recently Johnson spoke with ComicBook.com about the film’s legacy and says that while the movie has “haunted” him, he remains proud of it:

“We tried some things, which I am proud of. I do like the look of Daredevil very much. We hadn’t seen a superhero come home covered in scars, and chewing on pain pills, and it was kind of grim. You’re not going to get that right now from a Disney-owned Marvel character. You’re just not going to see that, and maybe there’s a reason. But I found that very interesting. It was something you hadn’t seen.

Even though they’re uneven, I’m still very proud of that director’s cut. I still think it’s worthwhile, and the hard thing now is when you look back, and you just see how far visual effects have come. It’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ You look at the CGI Daredevil from 2003, and you’re like, ‘Yikes.’ We have better-looking video game characters now than we did back then.

I know it’s haunted me for years, because the people that, not all, but a lot of the people who didn’t like the film, see the director’s cut and really enjoyed it. But what good does that do you in the end? You just hope that people see that eventually, and make up their mind based on that.”

Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan and Colin Farrell starred in the film which grossed $179 million worldwide on a $78 million budget.